2nd print server ? Best option ?

[Snow-Munki]

Hi we got a print server here which has about 40 printers on it and works pretty well. However if it ever stops working then suddenly no one can print !

Just wondering is it possible to get a 2nd print server in and have it load balanced in some way ?

Looking into Windows Load Balancing but it isn't very clear. So if the primary print server goes down the user won't see any difference as the backup one would be used.

 

[TheKnat]

I tried setting up a clustered windows print server in the past and it just became a pain in the ass to setup. Then when it was ready, the switchover time between one dieing and the other taking its place was quite long.

As long as the print server doesn't change often I would be tempted to create a virtual machine copy of this and then run it on another box using VMWare server (which is free). If you do a quick google search, there is a boot disc out there which will let you boot both a normal server and a virtual image and then ghost one to the other. If you do that then you will have a perfect copy of it.

Using that method, if your main server ever had problems, just boot up the virtual one and off you go.

 

[m4cc45]

I think a Network Load Balanced server would be the best rather than clustered. The downside is that the server would have to mirror the existing one exactly (printer share names, etc.)

You then install the NLB component and assign it an IP what happens then is when someone goes to NLB IP (i.e. 192.168.0.1) it then decides which server to go to. If one server goes down it always goes to the other server until it's back available.

Very easy to setup but you may have to change the printer shares to \\NLB IP\printer share name\



M.

 

[Snow-Munki]

I think a Network Load Balanced server would be the best rather than clustered. The downside is that the server would have to mirror the existing one exactly (printer share names, etc.)

You then install the NLB component and assign it an IP what happens then is when someone goes to NLB IP (i.e. 192.168.0.1) it then decides which server to go to. If one server goes down it always goes to the other server until it's back available.

Very easy to setup but you may have to change the printer shares to \\NLB IP\printer share name\



M.

Thanks very much, any ideas where I start with this ? Been looking online and can't too much information about this.

 

[oddjob62]

Personally i'd start with a test environment (probably using VMs) Set up 2 servers with NLB (follow the MS articles regarding NLB), and set up a couple of printers on both servers. Make sure this works the way you would like it to.

I recently set up a couple of exchange front end servers using NLB and it was pretty simple to set up.